


[podmeta] MT!Prompto

by Annapods, Annaswrite (Annapods)



Series: anna's fave pods [11]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, But also text format, Except Ardyn actually? Meh too late, Gen, MT!Prompto, Mentions of a lot of squicky/triggery things so beware, Meta, Podfic, Podfic Length: 1-1.5 Hours, the list is too damn long to tag but anything you can imagine I probably mention at least once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-08 16:00:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12868053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annapods/pseuds/Annapods, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annapods/pseuds/Annaswrite
Summary: If you've been reading FFXV fic on ao3, then there's no way you haven't noticed the whole MT!Prompto thing. It's full of whump and angst and sometimes fluff, it's got world-building and canon divergence, and it makes me want to scream LOGIC at my screen pretty often.So I recorded it.





	1. Podmeta and links

**Author's Note:**

> This thing is titled "MT!Prompto oral not!fic podmeta thing" in my word doc. Tbh I only wanted to oral not!fic but then I found myself looking up quotes and references and thankfully I realized before it turned into a full thesis paper, but it was a close call.

 

**Streaming:**[tumblr](http://annapods.tumblr.com/tagged/mtp) \- [dropbox](https://www.dropbox.com/s/1w7bkj5r80i8jb5/%5BFFXV%5D%20MT%21Prompto.mp3?dl=0)

**Download:** dropbox ([mp3](https://www.dropbox.com/s/1w7bkj5r80i8jb5/%5BFFXV%5D%20MT%21Prompto.mp3?dl=0))

 

**Contact me:**[twitter](https://twitter.com/iamapodperson) \- [tumblr](http://annapods.tumblr.com/) \- [dreamwidth](https://annapods.dreamwidth.org/) \- email (annabelle.myrt@gmail.com)

 

**Notes:** recorded on Dec 1st/2nd . First fanish thing I've written in so long =D

**Some links:**[FFXV wikia](http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XV) \- FFXV kinkmeme [dreamwidth](https://ffxv-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/) and [pinboard](https://pinboard.in/search/u:ffxv-kinkmeme/) - [Redefining Events: Body Concept and Bodily Relationships [...]](http://archiveofourown.org/works/967887) by Instigator.

 


	2. script

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a mess, but I know a lot of people don't particularly like to listen to pods, so. Here you go.

** I - Warnings and background information **

 

**1 - Warnings and disclaimers**

If you've been reading FFXV fic on ao3, then there's no way you haven't noticed the whole MT!Prompto thing. It's full of whump and angst and sometimes fluff, it's got world-building and canon divergence, and it makes me want to scream LOGIC at my screen pretty often.  
So I recorded it.

Disclaimer: I have never played any FF game in my life. I've read a bunch of FFXV fic and some of the articles on the wikia (link in the ao3 work), but I will butcher all the names, and I'll probably get my lore and my time-line all mixed up between what's fanon and what's canon and what's just my own imagination. To be honest, I'm more interested in the fanon version anyways, so.

Also, I made the executive decision not to name any of the fics I mention. I wanted to, at first, but I've got finals and ITPE coming up, I do not have the time to write a frigging thesis.

If I mention an idea, and you like it, please feel free to run with it. If I mention an idea, and you had it first, well you put it up on the internet, dude. I have read far too much stuff to distinguish between what's yours and what's mine. Heck, technically, it's all Enix Square's anyway.

And I'm warning you right now, I'm going to mention some pretty gory stuff. Nothing graphic, but if the idea of body horror, psychological conditioning, child abuse, etc etc etc triggers or squicks you out, you might want to stop listening now.

 

**2 - Eos, Prompto and MT!Prompto**

So! A little bit of background on MT!Prompto. And on the world of Eos. Based on what I could guess from reading fics.

There are demons, created from the scourge, which is (I think) some kind of illness, but also somehow makes the night last longer, and at some points in history even makes it last for years.

There's the Niflheim empire, from Niflheim, whose citizens are called Niffs, and they're the bad guys. They're conquering other countries and using demons for warfare, and they're the ones creating MTs.

MTs, or Magitek Troopers, are suits of magical armor inhabited by demons made from cloned humans. Put like that it sounds pretty convoluted, but we'll come back to it later.  
They're fighting the good guys, the kingdom of Lucis. The capital is named Insomnia, the citizens are called Lucians. Their royal line was given some special magical abilities by one of the gods, Bahamut, but it also saps the life out of the kings, which. Not cool.

I don't really know what's happening with the gods, but there are six of them, and Ifrit is a traitor. There's something about him bringing the scourge, or it being from a meteor or something (???), but he's involved somehow.

Then there's a prophecy about a Lucian king defeating the scourge. And that's Noctis, the main character. Technically, he's the second coming of it, because some other king named Ardyn already tried and failed, but the gods don't really like to talk about that. Ardyn had magical healing powers and tried to fight the scourge by taking it into himself (???) and he ended up forsaken by the gods and his kingdom, and turned into a demon. Or several demons in a meat suit. He was imprisoned somewhere by the gods but escaped and is now posing as the chancellor of Niflheim.

Niflheim attacks Insomnia, Noctis leaves on a road trip with his bodyguard Gladio, his advisor Ignis, and his best friend Prompto, to go meet the gods and get their support/power. Stuff happens.

Now, Prompto Argentum. He's a member of the main party, and was originally one of the cloned babies supposed to be turned into MTs, but he got removed from the facility by operatives of Lucis and ended up being adopted by some random family (who then proceeded to neglect the crap out of him) and grew up mostly unaware of his origins.

In the canon, the only real sign of his past is a bar-code tattoo he has on his wrist, and maybe his aptitude with firearms (which are mostly used by the Niff soldiers (I think?)). But in fics, he can have more! Or Ardyn can kidnap him (I mean, it happens twice in the game) and turn him into an MT! Or he can have never gotten out of the MT program in Niflheim. Or whatever else you want.

Personally, I'm more interested in the full!MT version, because more hurt/comfort, and more world-build, and also, this meta already too long? But I'll try to include as much stuff as I can.

 

**3 - History of the trope**

According to the “research” I did, the idea probably got its start on the FFXV kink meme (links to the dreamwidth and the pinboard in the ao3 post). It's pretty active, at least I see a lot more fics on ao3 mentioning it than I ever did in any other fandom. But since I have never actually participated in a kink meme myself, you should take that with a grain of salt.

But as a result, some fics are very similar. Like, freakishly similar. I'm guessing at some point someone on the kink meme requested the main party minus Prom getting attacked by yet another squadron of MTs and Gladio noticing first and them completely annihilating the MTs except the mask of the last one gets broken somehow and here's Prom and Noctis takes pity on him and doesn't kill him and etc etc etc because I can count at least three fics that begin that way off the top of my head.

 

**II - The 'birth' of an MT: transformation process and physical changes**

 

So let's start with the beginning: what are MTs, and how are they created.

MTs are the essence of demons in magical armor, right? Niflheim tech, when they die they go HIISSSSS and turn into smoke like vampires. Or they were always smoke? I'm not sure. Anyway. They go swoosh. (Remember, I've never played the game?)

But they start off as humans, or at least some of them do, otherwise Prom wouldn't be human. Or I guess. Wait, now I want that AU where MTs really are some sort of domesticated demons. Like, they flat out start as wild demons.

Anyway. Humans. Which means they get changed somehow. Now, I'm going to discern between three aspects of MTification here: genetic engineering, demonification and mechanification. (And yes, all the made-up words.)

 

**1 - Genetic engineering**

And it all starts with lab babies.

In canon, they're cloned from Verstael's (the head scientist) own genetic material, but it doesn't necessarily have to be him. They can have gametes banks, or steal babies from the surrounding area. They can grow their MTs in artificial wombs (giant test tubes, basically), or use surrogate mothers. Though surrogates mean the scientists modify the genes somewhat, or do something to the mother/fetus, because otherwise what's the point. And it complicates things: where do these surrogates live? What do they do apart from being pregnant? Are they here of their own free will? Let's just leave it be and go back to the genetic engineering thing.

And more specifically, what can go wrong. Like, bad mutations. Because they do a bad job, or the process isn't perfect yet. I mean, genes are very finicky things, and the scientists might not be very bothered with making the MTs live long and healthy lives. I don't know, someone who knows more about genetic birth defects think about it. For now, let's go with: their technology is advanced enough that they don't botch anything up unintentionally.

So, genetically engineered test tube babies. If the scientists are using the same genetic material for all of them, and not bothering to get a little variety in there, then they all look somewhat the same under the mask. I mean, if they still have a face under there. We'll get back to the face thing later. And they're all technically at least siblings, if not actually identical twins. Which can be horrifying or fluffy, depending on if you go down the body-snatching, identity-crisis, painful road or the fuzzy-feelings, found-family, fluffy one.

Just one last thing about genetic engineering before we switch to demonification and magic. Any genetic change is 1 permanent and 2 hereditary. I'm guessing permanent, because maybe their science is good enough to change it again, but also maybe not, and maybe any change they make would revert back to its original state after a potion or a shot of healing magic anyways, and hereditary is the same thing but applied to any biological descendant he has.

 

**2 - Demonification**

Now, demonification. The road most traveled by, and the closest to canon lore, actually.

In most stories, MTs in training get demon blood or something similar. Probably manufactered from demon blood. Pills, serum injections, tainted food... I'll call it treatment to be general. The main questions here are: how close is it to a regular case of the scourge, and why is our Prom not currently a demon. Or is he?

If it's just like a regular scourge, it's going to look like it. Also, humans working at the facility will try tointeract with the MTs as little as possible.  
With a bio-magico-whatever-engineered strand of the scourge, we've got more room for interpretation, so I'm going to go with that.

So why exactly is Prom still human?

1 - First theory is: he is undergoing treatment, but he's resistant to it for some reason. Maybe there's a flaw in his design, maybe there's an unexpected outside influence. By now, he's either successfully hiding it, because the difference is very small or hard to notice, or they don't care about it, if they think they can still make him into an MT, or they just haven't gotten around to taking a final decision about his case yet. Usually, the final decision is decommission/termination/death, but maybe they decide to keep him as a test subject or put him in another training program.  
But consider: depending on the cause of his resilience to demonification, there might be other human MTs around. Maybe they know each other.

2 - Second theory: the treatment is working, but it's somewhat reversible. Fully or partially, permanently or not, up to us. Is there a point of no return, or can even full MTs be rehabilitated, and what about regular scourge victims and demons? Give me those true MTs getting back to something human. Give me fully demon MTs learning agency and social rules. Give it to me...  
Also in a lot of fics, Prompto bleeds (and pukes) black blood for a while, as his body is purging itself of the demonic infection. Sometimes he gets withdrawal-like syndromes, or gets sick. It usually stops after a while, but it might be interesting to have the symptoms persist.

3 - Third theory is that he got out before he got demonified. Maybe it doesn't happen until just before they change to full MTs, or it happens afterward. Maybe they have to reach a certain age or height. Or. They're still human in armor at first, they undergo the change while on the field in the armor.

4 - Fourth and last theory: there is no demonification, at least not in the program he's in, and he's not supposed to change into a demon in the first place. Maybe it's one of the earlier programs, and the later models are all demons. Maybe it's a program for enhanced, or even regular foot soldiers. After all, Niflheim also has those, right?

In any case. Imagine how exactly the changes manifest. His eye color might change, his physical abilities... His thought process, too: he might get demonic instincts or impulses. He could just go blank, but we could also have him go wild or off. It might impact the way he interacts with real demons or with finished MTs. Like, Disney prince Prompto talking to demons! Or not registering as a threat to the MTs he encounters on the road trip! And what about magic? The changes might interfere with the way it works on him, both offensive and healing magic, or also the way it works for him, when he's summoning weapons or using Noct's spells.

I read somewhere that Nif f tech was inspired by Solheim tech, which  (I think?)  was supposed to be way superior to what they now have. Fics contradict each other on that, but according to the wikia there is a magical element to the armors,  too. So  we can also play with that.  For example, t here's this one fic where Prompto is actually  one of the old MT s from Solheim,  linked to Eos's magic.

 

** 3 - Mechanification **

But now that we're on the topic of the armor: mechanification. Or should I say bionification?

According to the wikia, it's the essence of the demons that's tied to the magitek core of the armors (or something like that). From what I understood, the demons still have a solid, corporeal form, right? If they don't, if it's only machinery and electronics in there, then why are they bipedal? Why do they have faces? Surely the human form is not the most adapted to war? Hence me thinking that they probably still have a face. But we could also imagine a slow process of them fusing with the armor so thoroughly and progressively that after a while there's no flesh left. Or that the armor becomes their skin.

Anyway. We have to decide how important the armors are. Conventional suits of armors that they can put on and take off like clothes, or something more advanced? As in, more body horror.  
Many fics have the MTs go through physical modifications (usually through surgery) to partially change them into machines. Think data ports, injection ports, nutrition tubes, bionic parts... It can be additions only or replacing existing body parts, it can be big things like vital organs or small things like an eye. It can be only the preparation for being put into the armor or it can be complete on its own. It can affect their basic needs for sleep, and food, and warmth, maybe it can even be turned on and off.  
Depending on the scale of the modifications, it might be done in one setting or over a period of time. If it's over a long period, then the scientists have to account for natural growth: you can't put an adult-sized bionic arm on a child, but if you give them a smaller model then you have to regularly change it to fit the rest of their body, which, waste of resources much?

Though the changes don't have to all be physical. Imagine them tampering with the brain: mental capacities like calculus, memory loss or alteration or even false memories, decision making and reflexes, impulse control and obedience, so called “programming”...

By the way, please give me cyborg!Prompto interpreting the world in terms of logical sequences of events and calculations. Give me really alien conceptions of the world and how they can be adapted to accept the outside world without necessarily breaking. Please do.

Now let's think about what can go wrong. The scientists/guards/gov officials might have a way to control the body and mind of the MTs, either through remote control of body parts or through conditioning. There might be fail-saves like auto-destruction triggers or poison capsules. Probably a localization device, maybe some kind of black box or emitter recording what's happening to the MT or around them. And what happens when you suddenly stop the process? Aren't there maintenance procedures to follow, dangerous incomplete stages? The body could start to reject the foreign elements. Something could rust or break or leak. If the brain has been tempered with, then they'd have to deal with the left-over conditioning. And depending on how it was done, there might be real damage. Frequent memory loss, or dissociative episodes, or whatever else you can think of. Once again, angst and body horror.  
If you're familiar with the MCU, just remember all the terrible things people have imagined for the Winter Soldier and you're good.

And I know I said I wasn't going to rec any fics, but I really have to mention Redefining Events: Body Concept and Bodily Relationships for Cyborgs, Werewolves, Super-soldiers, and Other Altered Bodies, by Instigator (link on ao3). It's not all about cyborgs, but it's super interesting and really makes you think about the psychological impact of non-consensual body enhancement modifications.

 

**III - The education of an MT: knowledge, culture and socialization**

 

But for the next part, let's assume Prompto stays relatively human, with a relatively human mind, and that he's not an infant anymore. I want to talk about socialization and culture.

So he's been raised in a lab for however many number of years. This is not a “normal” growing up experience. He most likely can't navigate the “normal” world any better than I could 15th century France. And I've lived in 'normal' France for most of my life. But just because I don't know anything about 15th century France doesn't mean I don't know anything, period. It's just that most of my knowledge isn't applicable. It's exactly the same thing for a city kid you drop in the middle of a farm, or a foreigner in a supermarket, or for a kid that grew up in a facility.

 

**1 - Knowledge**

One thing I can't stand in fics is lack of coherency. For example, we can't have Prom not know what a chocobo is, but describe Noct's hair as “raven black”. We can't have him fed intravenously all his life and know how to chew. Maybe he's never seen the sun, but he has probably heard of it through the guards or other MTs. He probably knows more about anatomy and technology than he does about how to behave in a Lucian classroom, but he may have learned how to cook if the kitchens were in the facility.

And in order to determine what he does know and doesn't know, we have to determine what he's doing in that facility. And no, I won't accept “nothing” for an answer. The Niff government wouldn't be spending money housing and feeding and monitoring kids if it wasn't useful somehow. I'm sure even evil government facilities have to deal with budget cuts and cost reduction.

So I'm going to use some real life examples of similar places.

1 - First off, the military. The facility is an army boot camp. But why would they need to train the kids, you ask? Well, many fics explain it by saying that the skills they learn as humans stay with them after they change into MTs. Problem is, they wouldn't need to be training all their lives, only for a few years, maybe only a few months before the transformation. Even if you discard the transformation: how long do you even need, to train canon fodder? Because let's not forget that Niflheim is at war, or at least preparing for it. They don't have the time/resources to train foot soldiers for years before sending them into the field. If Prompto got into the program young, then he probably graduated from it young too.

2 - But maybe the facility is closer to a hospital or a research lab. Maybe the transformation needs to be monitored closely over several years, or requires particular circumstances, or frequent intervention. That would justify having the kids live there for a while. If the program is still in the development stage, they might even keep one or two of them as lab rats. But they won't just leave the ordinary, run-of-the-mill MTs hanging around. It's both a security hazard and a serious waste of resources. So if they're not being experimented on/in a medical haze 24/7, and there's no point in training them, then what do they do all day?

3 - Which leads me to my next comparison: prisons and camps. And forced labor. In this case, probably physical labor. Something repetitive and dumb but productive, that even an MT in training undergoing transformation can do. Historically, we're looking at factory, fields, construction sites and roads, mines, etc. However, having the MTs working outside of the facility is kind of a dumb move. Because, 1 flight risk and 2 information leak. Well, if they even have the will power to flee, and if the Niff population doesn't already know about the program. But there could also be a factory in the facility or nearby.

4 - Another, kinder possibility: a school. If the program Prompto's in is supposed to produce human soldiers for the army, then they might want to educate them a little. Only in ways that are useful to the army, of course. Like science for research or accounting for the administration. But in this case, they're not training simple foot soldiers anymore, they're making an investment. They're expecting something in return, something more than them dying as canon fodder a month later.

So now we know what Prompto is doing all day. Combine with how MTification works, and it gives you an estimate of how old the kids are when they enter the program. Take into account what they learned before that, and then deduce what they know.  
Most fics go with the boot camp/research facility approach. But even then, there can be a whole lot of possibilities.

For example: if Prompto is born in a lab, and lives there all his life, and MTs are mindless cyborg demons that only understand basic vocal orders, the facility probably won't bother teaching them how to speak correctly. He definitely can't read or write, and might have never used a pen in his life, nor an electronic screen. He's seen them both, knows what they're for, but can't use them himself. He copies the accent of the facility workers and the vocabulary the other MTs use.  
But if MTs in training are taken from families outside of the facility at, say, 6, and retain most of their cognitive faculties throughout the program, then they all remember the outside world. They keep their own accents or dialects for a while, and maybe even for all their lives if they're all from the same region, even though of course it evolves and diverges for the original thing, and they know basic or intuitive things about the way Niff society works.

But I'm getting into the next part already here: socialization.

 

**2 - The human facility workers**

In the facility, Prom interacts with several types of people. The first one is: the human facility workers. The guards, the scientists, the government officials... And I'm throwing all of them together because they all grew up in Niff society, and they're all in a position of authority.

So. Due to their own background, they're going to implement Niff social norms and culture. And depending on how and how often they interact with the MTs, Prom is going to learn part of that first hand.

He also learns a lot of that second hand, because I doubt they care about a future MT seeing them interact with each other. So he's aware of how a soldier talks to a higher-up, or how colleagues talk to each other. He's just never actually been in that role.

Also, not everyone in that group is going to be the same. One doctor might be cruel, the other clinical, the third kind. I mean, most (if not all) of the relationships he might have with facility employees would be fucked up beyond measure by our standards, but they still count as social interactions. And the facility workers are still human, they're going to disagree with each other, to have different ethics, to act differently when given room for interpretation in their orders. Hell, they might even disregard these orders.

On the subject of authority: many fics have the facility use a point system of demerits, with punishment and decommission once they reach certain numbers. We might want to think about the rule systems of the facility: the official one, but also the one that's actually implemented, and the way that changes from individual to individual.

 

**3 - The other MTs**

The other group he interacts with is the other MTs. And if there are other types of test subjects, prisoners or maybe surrogates, then we also have to think about that, of course.

Depending on our world building, the MTs are more or less human. But even animals develop social structures, the only way to get around it is if every other MT is completely robotic or irresponsive. Actually, yeah, what about if every other MT is reobotic or demonic or irresponsive? How does he interact with them? I mean, there's at least “pass the salt”, right? But for the sake of my argument, let's just pretend they're all like Prompto.

Depending on what they do all day, and how closely they're monitored, they're probably spending a lot of time together. There's a social order, social norms, stories and slang... They might develop their own system of exchange, maybe with some sort of currency or just bartering. They might come up with stories to tell each other, develop their own stories and myths. They might come up with coded languages to talk about the officials without tipping them off, maybe some other forms of non-verbal or written communication too.

For fictional examples, think about stormtroopers in Star Wars. There's this one fic I won't name where the stormtroopers have a whole culture of oral story telling as a social activity and as a way of transmitting information. It's also a good example of how someone going against the institution they're in might find other people like them and work around the system. For non-fictional examples, think about prisons or the army or even cults, and how they're so different from the rest of the world.

One thing we haven't considered yet is how these two social circles mix. Like, imagine MTs getting rewards and privileges for good behavior, and how that would change the way they're seen by the other MTs. Imagine MT guards or lab assistants. Anything that can muddy the waters, make it less clear cut. Because the facility workers do not want the MTs to stay one single, cohesive group. Seriously, that's just asking for a rebellion.

But yeah. Enough said about the facility. Let's move on to how Prompto gets out (or doesn't, actually).

 

**IV - The start of an AU: the escape/rescue/kidnapping/whatever**

 

Let's play a game of cluedo: who met whom when.

 

**1 - A baby and the Lucian authorities, before the fall of Insomnia**

The canon route! (At least, Wikia says so.) Some people like to see it as Cor Leonis (Dad!Cor!), some people like to see it as a Niff scientist spying for Lucis/a Lucian spy infiltrating a Niff facility (depending on how you want to see it) sometimes... Basically whatever you want, but baby!Prom ends up in Insomnia.

If he's a baby, then we're focusing on the physical consequences. The psychological sequels will probably be way less important, and the social stigma of being adopted/from Niflheim will probably have much more of an impact on his life than the fact that he was originally a clone baby.

Or at least, if we go with the canon of: he's not actually that different from a normal baby. We don't have to. There can be something more, something maybe very visible that sets him apart, or if he's demonified/mechanified then he might not react in a socially acceptable way. Maybe he even grows at a different rate, or he has different needs. We can go as hard or as light on it as we want, basically.  
And now I'm imagining a full!MT!toddler following Cor around. What would that even look like?

There's also the question of just what his caretaker(s) know about the situation, and how much he knows. He's probably monitored by the government anyway, so if something goes reeeally awry in a really obvious way, he won't have to deal with it alone, but I mean, they didn't do anything about the neglect, and if it's subtle they might not notice. Though if his eyes turn red, they'll do something. And if they left him alone, then that means they don't think he's a threat, and they don't think they can learn anything more by studying him. It doesn't really make much sense, but the whole thing doesn't make sense, so. I mean, Why would they kidnap this one child, and not more. Is it special? Canon. Sigh.

 

**1 - An MT/MT in training and the Lucian authorities, before the fall of Insomnia**

Think back to everything I said about body modifications, demonification and socialization, that applies. Now, add the extra layer of how he's treated by both the authorities and the normal people he interacts with, depending on the following:

 

A - How he was found

Basically, facility or battlefield? If he was found injured in a giant test tube, then he might be seen as a victim of the Niff empire, like some kind of refugee. But if he was fighting Lucian soldiers (and even more so if he actually managed to injure/kill some of them) then he's more likely to be treated like a threat, or a POW if he's lucky. And that holds true for the people who found him and for the authorities they report to.

But that's if they even consider him human. And that brings me to another crucial factor:

 

B - How much Lucis knows about MTs

Because if MTs are not actually being deployed on the battlefield yet, then the Lucian government (and the other people he encounters) probably don't know a lot about them. There'll be less stigma of “guys like you killed my (insert person I liked here)”. They're far more likely to treat Prom as a human being.

But if MTs have been around for a while, let's be real: the kingdom is actively trying to learn how Niff tech works. That's warfare 101: you reverse engineer your opponent's weapons to build counters to them and, if possible, use it against them. The good old arm's race. So they might know/think that MTs are only demons/machines and treat Prompto as one.

By the way, they have guns and airships, right? Why don't they have tanks? Do they even have bombs? Why are they using fucking SWORDS???

Anyways. Let's see who knows what and why.

The first source of knowledge we should consider are the Lucian scientists trying to reverse engineer magitek remnants and maybe even live MTs. I say maybe live MTs, because they tried to capture MTs. That's a fact. Whether they managed, that's our choice. And if those scientists don't know absolutely everything there is to know about MTs and the process of making them, then they're going to want to study Prompto too.  
All in all, the information they have might not be common knowledge, are be known only to a few persons, depending on what the troops see, what they are told and what is made public. Rumors are probably rampant by now.

Other possible sources of knowledge: other MTs in training who escaped the labs, Niff defectors (MTs or scientists or political figures or normal soldiers) who turned to Lucis for asylum in exchange for information, Lucian spies in Niflheim.

And last but not least: the Niff population. Both in Niflheim and in Insomnia, because people and information travel, and with the demon problem Niflheim has I'm pretty sure there are a lot of refugees trying to get to the other side of the wall. What they know, the Lucis services have heard. Why wouldn't they? Please don't tell me incompetence, that's just sad.

 

C - How Lucian politics work

We also have to consider (shudder) politics. If Niflheim knows Lucis has Prompto, then they might try to leverage that against Lucis. Not likely, since POWs and stolen tech is pretty common practice during wars, and I doubt they're overly concerned about international law at the moment (if they even have any), but they could try to spin it as the kidnapping of the son of a government official, to justify their offensive strategy or make Lucis look bad. Propaganda stuff, you know.

But also, internal politics: power plays between the king and whatever councils and such there are, between the different branches of the government, etc. Not just Cor and Drautos not getting along. Make it messy, make it real.

All that, combined with:

 

D - How well Prompto passes as 'normal'

determines how much the people he encounters sympathize with him. And by passing, I mean both in appearance and in behavior. Is there anything about him that can reinforce people's idea that he's “other”? The eye color of a demon, a Niff accent, dead eyes like a machine, killer reflexes? And how young does he look? How pathetic and harmless?

All of that applies to most scenarios too, so I won't come back to it every time. But it's still there, in the background, just like the physical alterations and the socialization stuff.

Now. On to the next scenario.

 

**3 - An MT and Noctis and his friends, after the fall of Insomnia**

The main difference here is that Insomnia has already fallen. There is no protocol to follow anymore, no figure of authority, no prison or even fixed locations, no laws on POWs, no doctors and tests, no convoluted politics. In a way, the situation is much simpler. Just apply everything said previously: how did they meet, what do they know... Do take into account the fact that the Niflheim empire killed a lot of their friends and family and kind of destroyed their home and is actively trying to kill them. They're probably in “kill first, ask questions never” mode when it comes to MTs.

 

**4 - An MT on his own, whenever**

If he escaped on his own somehow, then how hard is it for him to survive and adapt? Which is mostly linked to how the recovery process works, and how much he knows about the outside world, but also where he ends up (like, in the wilderness, or in an urban area?) and whether he gets help from the locals. If he does get help, then that means he's already undergoing resocialization. And if he doesn't, then he might still learn stuff by observing people.

I have a soft spot for random OCs being kind, and found families, so if someone wants to write me escaped!Prompto getting adopted by some random village or community somewhere, I'll love you forever.

By the way, there's this one fic where he lived in the wild for, like, 5 years before meeting Noctis and co., so I'm not just inventing that AU.

But we can also imagine several MTs escaping together, or even, like, taking over a facility! Like, maybe there are only a few human MTs around, and they plan together and take control of the other MTs, or, maybe, they're all human, and they're planning something with people from the outside, or getting help from dissident facility workers, or Lucian spies!

But to go back to our speculations, I'm guessing he meets the canon characters at some point, and then we're back to all the stuff I've already said. He might have learned how to act and look like a regular person, but since this is fanfiction and we like resolution, they're gonna learn about his past at some point.

 

**5 - An MT on an assignment for Niflheim**

And here we have to specify which type of assignment this is:

 

A - A normal MT mission

So he's doing his job, guarding someone or something, and they meet. It's probably before the fall of Insomnia or in some sort of official setting so they don't try to kill each other on sight, otherwise we're just back to “an MT and Noctis and his friends, after the fall of Insomnia”. Could be that Prompto works in the prisons and someone has been captured. We might need to make it an AU of the time-line/political setting. Anyway. Most likely not so action packed, and more time to get to know each other. Prompto would still be immersed in his role as an MT of the Niflheim army, so expect some divided loyalties and politics.

 

B - An infiltration mission

Because somehow my government would send me back to 15th century France to infiltrate the court, right? Right? No way I'd get caught immediately, tortured for information and dissected for science and they'd learn about the atomic bomb and how to time travel. No way.

Let's see how we can make this work.

1 - It's a true infiltration mission. So he's a good enough actor and he's prepared. He's actually well versed in Lucian culture and societal norms, and he likely grew up in “normal” Niff culture and not sequestered in a facility. He'd still have to pass as a Niff immigrant though, and it'd be a long con. But! An opportunity to world-build: what's the refugee situation like? The social/legal systems in place? Niff culture and immigrant communities? OCs! Politics! Yay! Or maybe it'd be a double agent type of thing? Where he'd pretend to come clean and turn on Niflheim but actually he hadn't.

There's this one fic where he's not actually working with the Lucian kingdom, but he does turn on Niflheim while on an infiltration mission. And the Lucian government actually knows about him, because, please. Are they really that incompetent?

Or! Or! Imagine them knowing, and feeding Prompto false information without revealing that they know. Imagine.

2 - They actually want him to get caught. Probably so he can feed false information to the enemy. It would have to be something good enough that they could afford giving the enemy a chance to study their tech and learn about the details of the MT program, though. Or Maybe the Lucis kingdom already knows everything! They've already interrogated and studied (tortured and dissected) so many MTs, one more one less won't hurt anything, so the Niff empire isn't actually giving much away. Though, I wonder what kind of false information would be 1) strategically worth it and 2) would make sense to give to a low level MT. Also, they'd have to trick Prompto into believing it, too, otherwise we're back at number 1: he's actually a real spy.

Yeah, lots of spying and backstabbing and mind games in there. I mean. What else did you expect from an infiltration mission?

3 - It's a kamikaze mission that actually has good chances of success. But for that, they'd be sending their best asset. Someone reeeally good at what they have to do. And why are they acting now? What makes this time/place/opportunity special?

 

**6 - A not!soldier!MT**

This is when MTs aren't only soldiers, but also servants or android slaves. Many possibilities here, I'll just mention a couple of AUs that have been done:

Prompto was given as a gift to teenage!Noctis, he's a servant for a Niff government official, or sex droid, or a Bladerunner AU, or that one where Prom is beta testing a RPG and the MTs are players. Yeah. Lots of possibilities.

 

**7 - A 'regular' Niff citizen**

This is basically for the one fic where Prom is part of the Niff rebellion. I just really wanted to include it, because it's kind of a pet peeve of mine, when people make the bad guys' country EVIL (TM) and the good guys' ~good~ ©, just like when they make magic be ruled by human cultural ideas of morality or pretend doing bad stuff is inhuman in itself.

So please don't make all Niffs completely complacent. Because where there's a political regime, there's dissent. And where there's a totalitarian regime, there's a rebellion. It might be in prison, or in hiding, or getting exterminated pretty regularly, but there's one.

If Prom gets out of the facility, depending on where it is situated, he's probably going to interact with Niffs before he ever meets Lucians. If you want to go down that route, you might want to consider the socio-economical-political-whatever climate of the region. Their relationship to MTs and the military. How they deal with demons. And so on and so forth. Yay world-building!

 

**V - Credits**

 

So. Yeah. That's all I have. If there's anything you want to add, or if you disagree on something I said, or if you just want to talk about it, just drop me a line! I'm Annapods on ao3, tumblr and dreamwidth, and Annapodfics on twitter.

Thanks for listening, and have a great day!


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